§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will call for the resignation of the Chairman of the Western Regional Hospital Board and the dismissal of that Board's Chief Medical Adviser in view of their having deliberately sought to mislead the hon. Members for Hamilton and Motherwell into believing that the recently revised Hospital Plan for Scotland as it affected the Western Region had been decided without opportunity for consultation between the regional board and the Scottish Home and Health Department.
§ Mr. NobleNo. As my hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has already stated, consultation about these deferments, if the word is interpreted in its narrowest sense as implying a special discussion, did not80W take place. The decisions were taken in the light of previous and regular discussions between my department and Officials of the board and of the board's own earlier decisions about priorities. I have been asked to express the Chairman's regret, with which I myself agree, that these circumstances were not made clear to the hon. Members.